So, your business is growing and it’s time to go from solopreneur to hiring a team or adding on to your existing team – yay! We love to hear it!

My guess is, while you’re excited about your business expanding and getting some tasks off your plate – the thought of training a new team member sounds exhausting, frustrating, and a little scary. The good news is, that’s completely normal. The even better news is, I’m going to show you how to build an onboarding process that makes hiring a new employee a piece of cake.

Why is an onboarding process so important?

Wondering why having an onboarding process is such a big deal? Because without one, chances are you’ll spend hours on Zoom calls showing your new hire everything behind the scenes, you’ll spend weeks correcting easily avoidable mistakes, and you’ll position yourself as the bottleneck in your business because the success of a new team member requires your personal time. Not ideal right?

So, before your new hire even sets foot through the door (or logs into their virtual workspace), you gotta lay the groundwork. That means recording training videos, creating SOPs, and setting up streamlined systems.  The truth is, a well-organized onboarding process can make all the difference between a team member who thrives working for you and one who struggles (and ultimately needs to be let go or quits.)

What does a good onboarding process include?

If you’re reading this, I’m making a couple assumptions about you: you’re an entrepreneur (not a corporate employee/team leader), you have a growing and flourishing business. The needs and systems of a growing small business are much different than that of a big business and the following onboarding process is specifically designed for small business owners.

That being said, an effective onboarding process occurs in three phases: pre-boarding (behind the scenes preparation), welcome/kickoff, and follow up.

Pre-Boarding

This first stage of onboarding is where the most amount of work (and the most important work) is required. It begins months before you even begin interviewing. This is the stage where you draft and review your contractor/employment agreement with a lawyer, create your SOPs, set up your systems, and create your training resources.

Legal Documents

First things first, you want to make sure you have all the legal and tax documents you need to make your first hire. If the position is a 1099 Contractor position, which is common for small businesses and solopreneurs, at a minimum you’ll want a lawyer reviewed contract and a W9 ready to send.

Create SOPs

This is a pre-boarding stage that so many business owners skip, and unfortunately it ends up costing them so much time because without them your new team member is more likely to make mistakes while completing their tasks, especially in the beginning. Ultimately, a team member’s mistakes will cost you time either by you having to fix them or you having to coach them on how to correct their mistakes each time. 

P.s. this doesn’t just apply to new team members. If you have an existing team that is making frequent mistakes – you need SOPs. All businesses need SOPs.

SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) provide a roadmap for consistency and efficiency, ensuring that every team member is equipped with the knowledge and resources they need to excel in their role.

Related:  What are SOPs & How to Create Them 

Set Up Your Systems & Create Your Training Resources

Make a list of the systems you currently use and those you will need to implement for your new hire. There are a few that I recommend, including: a project management system (Clickup) to assign tasks and track their progress, a file sharing system (like Google Drive or Dropbox), your communication system (Slack), and a time tracking system (like Connnectteam or Toggl) at a minimum. Plus, any industry specific systems that they should be versed in in order to complete their tasks.  Do a full audit of all the systems you added to your list and ensure they are optimized and ready to introduce a new team member.

Next, outline what your new hire needs to know about each of these systems in order to perform well. Then record short training videos or create written user guides for each system. If you opt for videos, which in most cases I recommend, they should be 10-15 minutes long and be informative yet concise. Record the videos in a video sharing platform like Loom or Zoom and add the recording links to a Google Doc with your  “Onboarding” folder of your Google Drive. These videos will replace the long winded training call you would otherwise schedule when hiring a new team member.

Related: Four Things You’re Overcomplicating in Business & Systems to Simplify

Welcome & Kickoff

This is the part most people think about when they think of onboarding: it’s the meet and greets and the training videos. But let’s break down how to save time and increase efficiency in the process.

Send a Welcome/Introduction Message 

Send this message in whatever platform you primarily communicate with your team (ie. Slack). This is the perfect opportunity to set the expectation that this is where general communication should take place. 

Send Links to Training Videos and Resources

Now it’s time to grant your new hire access to all of your systems. After inviting them to your systems, send a follow up email confirming that they’ve been added and include the link to your Google Doc that contains the training video recording links.

Feel free to swipe + personalize this email template:

“You should have an email invite to our systems including: ____. Please create your account for all of those systems as soon as possible.

Additionally, below I’ve linked a document containing some important training videos/resources to get started on:

Please review the resources above by [date]. Once you’ve done so, please book a 1:1 call with me using this link.

So excited to have you as part of the team!”

Invite them to schedule a 1:1 Call

This may seem super obvious, but I find it’s where most leaders go wrong. This call should not be a 90 minute “here’s everything you need to know about my business and a step by step tutorial on how to perform your tasks” call. This should be a brief (no longer than 30 minutes) review and answer questions call. When you send the training videos and resources be sure to tell your new hire that you want to support them as much as possible and in order to do that it’s crucial that they consume all training videos by X date and only schedule their 1:1 after they’ve consumed the training material.

Follow Up

Once your new hire understands how to use the beautiful systems you have in place, you can use those systems to follow up with them as the last phase of on boarding. Be sure that all their tasks are assigned to them and have proper due dates within your project management tool (I love Clickup for this.) Send weekly check-in messages via your communication system (I recommend Slack for this.) Then at the end of their first month encourage them to book another 1:1 call to review what went well, what didn’t, and where you can improve moving forward. 

Now you have everything you need for a successful new team member onboarding process. Remember: simple, streamlined systems and good communication are the best ways to nurture a new hire into a lifelong team member!

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In case we haven’t met yet, I’m Michaela – content writer, behind the scenes expert, and chaos coordinator (aka the virgo energy to your creative spirit). 

And I’m completely obsessed with helping you turn your journal full of ideas into profit driving offers with research backed strategy, magnetic content, and streamlined systems. It’s about time you got the all-inclusive support you deserve – and I’m here to make it happen.

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